Lisa Blunt Rochester

This resolution designates October 7, 2026, as Energy Efficiency Day.

Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement Act of 2025 or the BRAVE Act of 2025

This bill addresses mental health services and care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including matters related to personnel, Vet Center administration, care for women veterans, and access to care.

The bill authorizes the VA to waive the licensure or certification requirement for individual licensed professional mental health counselor appointees for a reasonable period of time.

The bill also extends the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program and increases the maximum annual grant amount.

The VA must provide Vet Centers with guidance for assessing outreach activities and implement processes to periodically assess the extent to which (1) veterans and eligible members of the Armed Forces experience barriers to obtaining services at Vet Centers, and (2) Vet Center staff may encounter barriers to providing services.

Among other requirements, the VA must also

• survey and host listening sessions with women veterans to gauge the effectiveness of the VA’s suicide prevention, lethal-means safety, and mental health resources and messaging campaigns;

• initiate efforts to modify the Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET) program to incorporate risk factors weighted for women;

• annually offer a mental health consultation to veterans who are receiving compensation for a service-connected disability relating to a mental health diagnosis; and

• implement a pilot program to provide access to mental health residential treatment programs for veterans with a spinal cord injury or disorder.

Driver Reimbursement Increase for Veteran Equity Act of 2025 or the DRIVE Act of 2025

This bill increases the mileage reimbursement rate available to beneficiaries for travel to or from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities in connection with vocational rehabilitation, required counseling, or for the purpose of examination, treatment, or care. Specifically, the bill makes the reimbursement rate for such travel equal to or greater than the mileage reimbursement rate for government employees using private vehicles when no government vehicle is available.

The bill also requires the VA to ensure that an allowance based on mileage is paid not later than 90 days after the request is properly submitted to the VA.

This bill prohibits the Department of Defense (DOD) from excluding an individual from military positions or assignments based on gender. It also limits changes to DOD occupational performance standards that address gender neutrality.

First, the bill prohibits the exclusion of members of the Armed Forces from an occupational specialty, career field, or assignment on the basis of gender.

Next, it prohibits DOD from changing an occupational performance standard to increase or decrease the number of individuals in a career field on the basis of gender. (Currently, this prohibition only applies to increasing or decreasing the number of women.)

DOD must also apply occupational standards related to technical, tactical, cognitive, or physical abilities on a gender-neutral basis for positions that require such standards and must determine any such standards after a rigorous scientific process.

In situations where DOD establishes or revises a physical requirement for a military position, a member serving satisfactorily in such a position must be provided at least 18 months to meet the new standard.

Finally, DOD must notify Congress of any proposed changes to the gender-neutral occupational standards for a military position that may result in at least a 10% change in the number of members of any gender who are assigned to or enter that position. (Currently, such notice is required only with respect to a change in the number of female members.) DOD must provide the congressional defense committees with a report on the proposed change, estimated costs, and justification for the change.

This resolution requests that the Department of State provide Congress with an unclassified statement regarding Israel's human rights practices.

The resolution specifies that the statement should include certain elements, including (1) all credible information concerning the alleged killing of nine specified U.S. citizens and any other U.S. citizens by the Israeli Defense Forces, Israeli security forces, or Israeli settlers in 2022 or later; (2) all credible information concerning the identities of potential suspects in the killings; and (3) details on any steps taken by Israeli authorities to investigate the killings and hold accountable those responsible.

The statement should also include other elements, such as assessments of U.S. citizens currently held in Israeli prisons and the human rights situation of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention in the West Bank.